Public Bodies Bill [Lords]

Debate between David Wright and Gareth Thomas

Tuesday 25th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Thomas]

He does not—perhaps a glaring example of what the reality will look like.

My second example is Steve Leniec, from near Wantage in Oxfordshire, who is paid a craftsman’s rates and whose concerns are about the downward pressure on farm workers’ wages, which abolition of the AWB will drive. The House knows that unemployment is high at the moment, and his perfectly reasonable and understandable fear is that wages will slowly drop when the AWB is abolished.

[David Wright]

My hon. Friend is talking about wages being gradually eroded, but the wages of the 40,000-plus casual workers, who change jobs more rapidly, will fall very quickly indeed. A large proportion of people working in the countryside will quickly take a pay hit if this body is abolished.

[Mr Thomas]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is precisely the concern being expressed by many people.